The present invention relates to an internal construction device for assembling a large plant from a plurality of smaller plants, the device comprising (1) a support pole extending in height direction of the device, (2) a plurality of superimposed retainers mounted above each other around the support pole and being at least partly nested within each other, the retainers having a central storage volume for receiving dirt and plants and a substantially open top face, (3) supporting means for supporting each retainer. A retainer underneath comprises a side wall and a top face with a surface area. A subsequent retainer above the retainer underneath comprises a side wall and a bottom face with a surface area, the surface area of the top face of the retainer underneath being larger than the surface area of the bottom face of the subsequent retainer so as to create between the side walls of both retainers a space for receiving plants.
Such a vertical tiered sectional planter is known from U.S. Pat. No. 3,293,798. The vertical tiered sectional planter of U.S. Pat. No. 3,293,798 comprises a circular, flat, pan shaped base which is positioned in a corresponding recess in the ground. A circular, pan shaped bottom section is nested within the base and rests with its bottom wall on a horizontal screen secured to the side-wall of the base section. An upstanding, vertically elongated standard is fixed within the base. A plurality of pan shaped sections are secured around the standard. The lower part of the side wall of each section is perforated to allow moisture to escape in a controlled way through the side wall perforations and to fall onto the peripheral parts of the bed below. The dimensions of the sections are chosen such that the side walls of subsequent sections are spaced apart radially so that between the top rim of the lower section and the side wall of the subsequent section a bed is created for receiving shoots.
The vertical tiered planter disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,438,797 aims at increasing the planting area without thereby increasing the floor space occupied by it and at culturing polycultures within one planter, for example vegetables, flowers, strawberries and even potatoes. It is designed to provide a maximum access to the beds, while at the same time affording a maximum exposure of the shoots to sunlight and rain and occupying a minimum of ground area. The planter of U.S. Pat. No. 5,438,797 comprises an upstanding, vertically elongated standard around which the flower pots are arranged. Each flower pot is supported in two ways. A first support means is formed by the dirt in the pot. As a second support means, each pot rests with its bottom onto a bar which extends through the segmented pole.
In FR-A-2.733.117 a culture tower is disclosed which comprises a plurality of retainers succeeding each other in height direction of the tower. The retainers are mounted on a rigid support composed of three vertically extending rectilinear poles, regularly distributed in circumferential direction of the wall of the tower. Every pole consists of a plurality of superimposed profiles which engage each other in height direction of the tower, each profile comprising a lateral restraint for receiving the retainer and maintaining subsequent retainers at a pre-determined distance from each other. The culture tower disclosed in FR-A-2.733.117 is intended to grow a large number of small vegetables, small plants and aromatics on a small ground area.
FR-A-2.545.313 relates to a device for the intensive culture of vegetal plants. Thereto, use is made of a pyramidal device of a plurality of in height direction superimposed floors. The side walls of the floors are formed by laterally inclined plates, which form a physical obstacle with a tendency to exert a guiding effect to the development of the roots towards the central zone of the pyramid.
It is the object of the present invention to provide a different concept of a plant growing device, namely an internal construction for a plant with which a full-grown plant or tree or shrub or the like can be assembled from small plants in a simple way, and in particular within a relatively short period of time.
This is achieved according to the present invention with the technical features of the characterising part of the first claim.
The retainer of the internal construction device of the present invention is in fact a casing with a side wall and an open bottom face which enclose a central storage space, the central storage spaces of subsequent or superimposed retainers being connected to each other and transferring into each other in a jointless manner.
It has been found with this invention that the connection of the subsequent central storage spaces renders the device particularly suitable for constructing a full-grown plant or shrub or a tree like plant of any desired shape, starting from a plurality of smaller shrubs or tree plants. After a relatively short period of time the device as such is no longer visible from the outside.
The device of this invention constitutes in fact an internal construction or internal framework in which a plurality of smaller plants can be assembled or housed, and from which the plants may extend in all directions to form to a tree or a shrub like plant or a large plant or the like, the framework being hidden by the plants. The device of this invention is conceived as a frame for containing the dirt for the plants, the frame being no longer visible from the outside and being provided to be hidden by the plants housed in it. As the central storage volumes of subsequent retainers and thus the dirt contained therein are connected to each other and transfer into each other in a jointless manner, the central storage spaces of subsequent retainers appear to form one large growing volume for the roots, so that the dirt of a specific level is not only accessible to the roots of plants housed in that particular level or retainer, but is also accessible to the roots of the plants located in higher levels. As a consequence the growth of the roots and the plants is not limited by the dirt volume of the retainer they are housed in, but is extended to wards the interior of the lower retainers. Because of this, the frame of the presumed full-grown plant obtainable with the device of this invention is comparable to the interior of a full grown tree, which is composed of a plurality of branched internal branches, which often don""t carry any leaves and form a frame for the outer, leave carrying branches to supply them with feed and moisture. Nor the frame as such, nor the result obtainable with such a frame can be derived from the state of the art.
It has surprisingly been found that plants planted in the device of this invention can grow to a larger size as compared to conventional planters, where the maximum size and the life time of the plants is usually limited. This is surprising as plants of shrubs and trees mostly only show a good growth when planted in full ground. An analysis of the problem has revealed that this may most probably attributed to the interconnection of the central storage spaces of the retainers, which appears to approach the conditions provided by the soil of a garden or the like, and through which the roots dispose of a larger volume of growing medium and a larger growing space and thus may grow to a larger extent.
The observed longer lifetime of the plants in the device of this invention as compared to plants housed in conventional planters can presumably also be attributed to the fact that the roots can dispose of a larger volume of dirt. The accessibility of a larger volume of dirt improves the feed of which the plant can dispose and allows a more even distribution of moisture, nutrients and fertilisers, supplied from the outside to the device, to be achieved, thus promoting the plant feed. The dirt contained in subsequent retainers in fact forms one large, growing medium, wherein the roots of the plants have a large degree of freedom to grow and develop themselves, which appears to have a positive influence on the growth and lifetime of the plants.
These results cannot be attained with the planter known from the state of the art. Because of the presence of a closed bottom in the known planter, the space that can be occupied by the roots is limited, thus limiting the growth of the plant.
In the device of this invention, the side wall of each casing is preferably connected to the support pole. This is done to provide a sturdy construction, the size of which can be varied within wide ranges by varying the size or shape of one or more of the retainers or the number of retainers in the device, without thereby involving the risk that the construction easily topples over upon an accidental bump. Namely, as the size of the individual casing and the number of superimposed casing increase, the weight of the device increases accordingly and the centre of gravity is shifted towards the top of the device. The connection of the individual casings to the support pole through their side wall involves that the bottom wall of the retainer may be left out without thereby adversely affecting the stability of the device.
The means for connecting the side wall of the casing to the support pole are preferably removably connectable to both the support pole and the casing, as this facilitates transport of the device. In that way the retainers may be commercialised as such, the device may be assembled in situ and the retainers attached to the support pole when assembling the device. The removable mounting also allows disassembling the device in case for example it is desired to move the device and displace the retainers in an individual manner.
The means for removably connecting the retainer to the support pole preferably comprise at least one support bar with two ends, the ends being provided to co-operate with holes in opposing sides of the side-wall of the casing, the support pole comprising at least on hole for receiving the support bar there through.
Another preferred possibility of removably connecting the retainers to the support pole consists in that the support pole comprises a plurality of holes, which extend throughout the support pole in cross direction thereof and are spaced from each other in height direction of the support pole. The holes are arranged in pairs of a first and second hole for receiving perpendicularly extending support bars. In that way each casing may be connected to the support pole at four positions. In a first pair, the lower hole extends in a first direction, the upper hole extends in a second direction perpendicular to the first direction. In a subsequent second pair, the lower hole extends in the second direction whereas the upper hole extends in the first direction. The distance between subsequent pairs of holes is adapted to the height of the side wall of the casing such that a retainer may be supported in two ways: (1) the retainer is hung to the support pole, by the upper and lower support bar; (2) the bottom rim of the retainer rests on the upper support bar of a retainer underneath.
This arrangement of the holes is preferred as it assists in improving the stability of the device. Namely a first retainer will rest on a support bar extending in a first direction, a second subsequent retainer resting on a support bar extending in a second perpendicular direction. In that way wobbling of the device may be counteracted.
Furthermore, clamping means may be provided to the ends of the support bar, to allow the side wall of the casing to be clamped between these clamping means. In that way expansion, sagging or deformation of the casing caused by the pressure exerted by the dirt contained in it and casings placed on top of it, may be minimised.
In an alternative embodiment of the invention opposite sides of the side wall of the casing are connected to the support pole through a vertical separation wall. The separation wall is preferably removably connectable to the side wall and the support pole. The presence of the side wall gives strength to the container thus increasing the ability of the container to retain its shape when filled with dirt. Because of the relatively large weight of the growth medium and the plants, the pressure experienced by an upper container to a container underneath may be significant and give rise to a sagging of the shape of the lower container or cause an undesirable deformation thereof. This sagging may get particularly important for the lower containers when stacking a plurality of containers on top of each other. In another preferred embodiment, at least two perpendicularly extending separation walls are mounted in the central storage space.
According to another preferred embodiment of this invention the device comprises a bottom casing which is provided to be placed upon a bottom plate, the bottom plate comprising means for displacing the device. In that way it is possible to provide a device which can be displaced from one location to the other as a unity, without thereby having to disassemble the individual retainers, and without thereby adversely influencing the life time and growth of the plants. Another possibility of doing this is to provide a hook to the top of the support pole to allow the device to be lifted, and to position the lower casing on a displaceable foot.
The application possibilities offered by the devices known from the art are limited and are limited to providing a planter with which (1) the planting area can be increased, without thereby increasing the ground area occupied by the planter, (2) gardening can be facilitated because the planters are located at a distance from the floor, and (3) different types of plants can be grown in a small area. There is no teaching in state of the art to conceive a planter as a frame for surrounding dirt for housing plants, the frame being provided to be hidden by the plants and to be almost unobservable from the outside. Nor is there any teaching in the state of the art to use this frame for constructing shrubs or trees, the growing of which would otherwise take years. Neither is there any teaching to use a frame to allow shrubs or threes to be constructed from a plurality of small plants which otherwise would not grow out towards a tree, such as for example creepers, rose plants etc. As has been explained above, the inventor attributes this finding to the fact that in the device of this invention the bottom wall of the casings is omitted and the central storage spaces are interconnected and transfer into each other in a jointless manner.
It is believed that the man skilled in the art is of the opinion that the presence of a bottom wall is necessary so as to prevent the dirt contained in the planter to subside too much. The inventor has now found that any subsidence that may occur does not adversely influence the plant construction and can be replenished by supplying additional dirt or any other growth medium. Also in the vertical tiered planters known from the art the presence of a bottom wall is necessary to provide a sufficient stability to the planter. In the present invention sufficient stability is provided by connecting the casings to the support pole, which in turn may be secured into the ground or a support bottom plate, so that the presence of a bottom wall in a casing becomes superfluous.